AlAlAl-Al ---Batt×n÷’sBatt×n÷’s Astrological History of the Prophet and the Early Caliphate E.S. Kennedy, Colleagues and Former Students Keywords: Al-Battānī, Kit×b f÷ dal×’il al-qir×n×t wa l-kusýf×t , astrology, astrological history, Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions, eclipses. Abstract This article presents the last major project that Edward S. Kennedy (1912- 2009) worked on towards the end of his long and productive life. Finished by three “colleagues and former students”, it gives a full edition with En- glish translation of the astrological history of the Prophet and the early caliphate by al-Battānī (ca. 900), which is extant in a unique manuscript in Ankara. The commentary includes definitions of most relevant astrologi- cal concepts, analyses and recomputations of the 21 horoscopes given by al-Battānī, and a detailed discussion of his astrological interpretations. Introduction Prof. E.S. Kennedy dedicated the last years of his long and active life to the study of the text presented here: an edition, translation and commen- tary of the Kit×b f÷ dal×’il al-qir×n×t wa l-kusýf×t by the famous Syrian astronomer Mu¬ammad ibn J×bir ibn Sin×n al-©arr×n÷ al-Batt×n÷ (b. before 858, d. 929) 1. This text is extant in a thirteenth-century manuscript 1 Hartner ; van Dalen 2 . Suhayl 9 (2009-2010), pp. 13-148 14 E.S. Kennedy, Colleagues and Former Students (Ankara, Dil ve Tarih-Co§rafya Fakültesi, collection Saib, no 199/2, fols. 27v-42v) 2, discovered by Fuat Sezgin, to whom we express our gratitude for his generosity in giving us access to his own microfilm of this work. The other parts of this manuscript contain Asr×r þilm al-nujým by Abū Maþshar (fols. 1r-26v) 3 and the Qir×n×t by Kankah al-Hindī (fols. 43r- 76r) 4. The text is written in a clear naskh÷ script and contains seventeen lines per page. Kennedy and Pingree dedicated many years to the study of mathemati- cal astrology and did a great deal of research on historical horoscopes in papers and books like Pingree 1 & 2 or Kennedy & Pingree . Historical horoscopes have also attracted the attention of other scholars (see, for example, Labarta , Labarta & Mestres or Samsó 1, 2 & 3 ), who became interested in sources of this kind under the influence of the publications of Kennedy and Pingree. Many of these horoscopes are based on Saturn- Jupiter conjunctions and, very often, they were cast for the year transfers (ta¬×w÷l sin÷ al-þ×lam ) or spring equinoxes of the years in which a con- junction of this kind took place. 5 Al-Batt×n÷ believes that year transfers have no particular significance and reminds the reader of the importance attached by Ptolemy (II, 4 and 6) to solar and lunar eclipses for general prognostications related to the future of countries and cities. This is why al-Batt×n÷ plans, in his booklet, to combine the Greek tradition of eclipses with the Sasanian theory of Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions and to analyse, in his early history of Islam, the eclipses which take place near successive conjunctions of the aforementioned planets. The same idea occurs, with- out a specific reference to al-Batt×n÷, in Ibn Am×jýr’s contemporary sum- mary (on which see below), which states that astrologers did not take into consideration eclipses which occur at the same time as conjunctions. 6 The idea reappears, now attributed to Ptolemy and al-Batt×n÷, in the Kit×b al- B×ri’ f÷ a¬k×m al-nujým of Ibn Ab÷ l-Rij×l (d. after 1035-36), who consid- ers that predictions should be based on eclipses which take place in years of conjunctions, and that eclipses of this kind should be taken into consid- eration together with year transfers. 7 2 Sezgin , p. 159, no. 1. 3 Sezgin , p. 147, no. 18. 4 Sezgin , p. 95, no. 1. 5 See Pingree 1 , pp. 487 ff; Pingree 2, pp. 70 ff. Most relevant technical concepts are explained in detail in the commentary starting on page 76. 6 MS Leiden 107, f. 70v. 7 Batt×n÷ , vol. 1, p. XXIII; Hartner , p. 513; Hilty , p. 195. Al-Battānī’s Astrological History—Introduction 15 Al-Batt×n÷’s astrological history covers a period of some 112 years in the early history of Islam. Its starting point is the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, with a shift in triplicity, which coincides with a lunar eclipse in the year 571, in which the Prophet Mu¬ammad is assumed to have been born. The last chronological reference is to the death of Caliph Yaz÷d I (680-683), although the last horoscope is cast for Yaz÷d’s accession to the Caliphate. The whole astrological history covers the life of the Prophet (571-632, Horoscopes 1-12), which is Batt×n÷’s main centre of interest, the caliphates of the four r×shidýn caliphs (632-661, Horoscopes 13-18), and that of the two first Umayyad caliphs (661-683, Horoscopes 19-21). During this period of time six Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions take place at intervals of, approximately, 20 years (571, 590, 610, 630, 650 and 670). These conjunctions mark subperiods in history, some of which are partic- ularly important. The first conjunction (571), because of the shift in tripli- city, indicates the birth of the Prophet and the rise of Islam. The fourth conjunction (630) returns to the sign of Scorpio (that of the first) and this is why it is called qir×n al-þawda ; it corresponds to the death of the Proph- et in 632. The sixth conjunction (670) does not seem so important, in spite of the fact that it is a conjunction with a temporary shift from the triplicity of water to the triplicity of air: this subperiod (670-683) was marked by the death of Muþ×wiya and the accession and death of Yaz÷d I. Within each of the subperiods marked by the Saturn-Jupiter conjunc- tions, predictions about particular events are made on the basis of eclipses: in al-Batt×n÷’s collection of 21 horoscopes, 15 are for eclipses (three of them solar). Six of these eclipses take place in the same year as a Saturn- Jupiter conjunction (Horoscope 1 in 571, 3 in 590, 4 in 610, 8 in 630, 17 in 650, 20 in 670). Not a single one of the 21 horoscopes corresponds to a year transfer, but there are three horoscopes cast for the Prophet’s nativity transfer ( ta¬×w÷l sin÷ al-maw×l÷d ): while Horoscope 2 corresponds to the birth of the Prophet (571), Horoscope 7 is related to his nativity transfer in the year of the Hijra (622), Horoscope 10 to the transfer in the year of the fourth conjunction (630), and Horoscope 12 to the transfer in the year of his death (632). The two remaining horoscopes correspond to the Proph- et’s arrival in Medina (Horoscope 5) and to his death (11). We include recomputations of all 21 horoscopes and found that Battānī most likely calculated them from the tables in his own ¼ābi’ Zīj , rather than from the Mumta¬an Zīj , which he mentions in the text. Ted Kennedy is the author of the translation of the Arabic text and wrote most of the commentary with the collaboration of Benno van Dalen; 16 E.S. Kennedy, Colleagues and Former Students George Saliba edited the Arabic text; Benno van Dalen prepared the soft- ware for recomputing the horoscopes, wrote part of the astronomical com- mentary, and added three appendices on the recomputation and astronom- ical analysis of the horoscopes. Finally, as Kennedy had only written an astrological commentary of the introductory section of the book, Julio Samsó tried to clarify al-Batt×n÷’s interpretations of each of the 21 horo- scopes in the work. George Saliba also prepared a working edition 8 of the Kit×b jaw×miþ a¬k×m al-kusýfayn wa qir×n al-kawkabayn Zu¬al wa l- Mushtar÷ wa-dal×lat dhalika þal× amr al-milal wa l-ady×n wa l-mulýk wa a¬w×l al-þ×lam by al-Batt×n÷’s contemporary Abý l-Q×sim [þAbd All×h] ibn [A]m×jýr, which contains a summary of al-Battānī’s astrological the- ory as developed in Dal×’il al-qir×n×t wa l-kusýf×t . Because a full investi- gation of Ibn Amājūr’s treatise would have significantly delayed publica- tion of this study, we have decided not to include it here. George Saliba is planning to publish the text together with a translation and a commentary. Also a systematic comparison of Batt ānī’s astrological history (and in par- ticular the dated events it includes) with other early Islamic works on uni- versal astrology is left for future research. Van Dalen, Saliba and Samsó are the “colleagues and former students” who co-author this paper. They all consider themselves to be Ted Ken- nedy’s disciples – even though not all of them were technically his stu- dents – and wish to dedicate this paper to the memory of their master. Notes on the edition, translation, and commentary As a result of the long period of time that elapsed between the beginning of Ted Kennedy’s work on Battānī’s astrological history and this publica- tion, we did not any more have an editable version of George Saliba’s edition of the Arabic text. Rather than typesetting the entire text anew, we decided to reproduce the original edition, which is generally in very good state.